Mel Stride And Priti Patel Get Top Jobs In Kemi Badenoch's New Shadow Cabinet
Mel Stride has been appointed the new Shadow Chancellor (Alamy)
4 min read
New Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has appointed Mel Stride as Shadow Chancellor, Priti Patel as Shadow Foreign Secretary, and leadership rival Robert Jenrick Shadow Justice Secretary, along with the rest of her Shadow Cabinet.
Badenoch was announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party on Saturday, winning 53,806 votes from members compared to Robert Jenrick's 41,388. Jenrick has now been given a role as Shadow Justice Secretary.
Addressing a room of supporters and members in London after the result, Badenoch said the party's "first responsibility" would be to hold the Labour Government to account, and the second would be prepare for power so that by the next election they would have a "clear plan" on how to implement their policies.
"It is time to get down to business. It is time to renew," she said.
Badenoch's first round of Shadow Cabinet appointments indicate she is giving many of the most high-profile jobs to those who also stood to be leader, in what will likely be seen as an effort to help unify the party after its worst election defeat in history in July.
However, the scale of the Tory defeat to Labour, which reduced the Conservatives to just 121 House of Commons seats, has resulted in Badenoch having a limited pool of MPs to choose from when assembling her top team.
Here are all the key appointments so far:
Shadow Chancellor – Mel Stride MP
Mel Stride has become the new Shadow Chancellor, having previously served as Work and Pensions Secretary in the last Conservative government. He is taking over as Shadow Chancellor from former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who is standing down from having any frontbench role.
Having stood in the Conservative leadership contest himself, Stride was knocked out in the second round of MP votes.
He is seen as belonging to the One Nation, more moderate wing of the party.
Shadow Foreign Secretary – Priti Patel MP
Priti Patel was the first candidate to be knocked out of the Tory leadership contest (Alamy)
Priti Patel has become the new Shadow Foreign Secretary. Patel was previously home secretary between 2019 and 2022, as well as Secretary of State for International Development between 2016 and 2017.
She also stood to be leader this time around, but was the first candidate to be eliminated from the race.
A leading Brexit campaigner, Patel is regarded as being on the right of the Tory party.
Shadow Home Secretary – Chris Philp MP
Chris Philp (middle) attended Kemi Badenoch's leadership launch event (Alamy)
Chris Philp, who is taking over from former home secretary James Cleverly, held a number of ministerial roles across different departments under the previous Conservative government.
The MP for Croydon South was previously made Shadow Leader of the Commons by former leader Rishi Sunak after July's general election, and supported Badenoch in her leadership campaign.
Shadow Secretary of State appointments:
- Shadow Secretary of State for Justice – Robert Jenrick MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Education – Laura Trott MP
- Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – Alex Burghart MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Defence – James Cartlidge MP
- Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary – Ed Argar MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities – Kevin Hollinrake MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Victoria Atkins MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade – Andrew Griffith MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and Shadow Minister for Equalities – Claire Coutinho MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions – Helen Whately MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Transport: Gareth Bacon MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – Stuart Andrew MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology – Alan Mak MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Shadow Minister of State for Energy and Net Zero – Andrew Bowie MP
- Shadow Secretary of State for Wales and Shadow Minister for Women: Mims Davies MP
Other Shadow Cabinet members:
- Shadow Leader of the House of Commons – Jesse Norman MP
- Shadow Leader of the House of Lords – Lord True
- Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury – Richard Fuller MP
Party chairmen
- Joint party chairmen – Nigel Huddleston MP and Lord Johnson
Whips' Office:
- Opposition Chief Whip (Commons) – Rebecca Harris MP
Some previous Cabinet ministers from the last government, including Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Steve Barclay, and Oliver Dowden, are not taking up shadow ministerial roles and will return to the backbenches.
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